Of A Beautiful Flashback
by BatKid4Life
Summary: Kid Flash and Robin are already the best of friends at the beginning of Young Justice, but how we never find out how they their legendary friendship came to be. How did Robin and Kid Flash first meet? This is one half of a collaborative fanfic: this story being Dick's point of view. My buddy wrote Wally's POV under the story name "This Seems Like the Beginning..." Enjoy!
1. Chapter 1

The car screeched to a halt on the massive turn table. The roar of the powerful motors subsided just as the glassed top of the vehicle retracted with a quiet, but drawn-out hiss. A tall figure in black jumped out with surprising grace, considering the length of the cape that trailed behind him. A smaller, even more agile silhouette followed, only this one was wearing red, which at least made him slightly distinguishable in the darkness of the cave. Robin took a deep breath, inhaling the familiar smell of faint, burnt rubber combined with slight mildew.

'_Home at last', _he thought, closing his eyes with a relieved smile. It had been a busy night, even if it was only about midnight. He and Batman had been tracking down a strange series of clues for the past couple of nights, and even though it wasn't as intense as beating up thugs or busting crime lords, it was still _exhausting._ He didn't know why Batman had decided to take him back to the cave so early, but quite frankly, he didn't care.

Robin took off his mask and was about to pull off his cape when his mentor said, "Get in the plane." The Boy Wonder froze; he definitely was not expecting _this_.

"Wh-what? But….Why?" the almost-teen stuttered after a moment.

The Dark Knight turned to face his partner with a raised eyebrow, not used to being questioned.

"You very well know why Robin," he replied. "These break-ins we've been following have been cutting it a little too close to home. If someone is on the border of discovering our identities, then we need to work as fast as we can to figure out what's going on."

"I know that much," the youth impatiently retorted. "And before you say it, I also know that that one guard we discovered tonight is a clear clue leading us to Star City."

The Prince of Gotham looked at his ward inquisitively. "So?" he asked, matter-of-factly.

"Soooo, why do we have to go tonight? Why not tomorrow? " Robin pleaded.

A ghost of a smile played across the face of the Caped Crusader. "The night is young," he stated, as if it answered all of the world's questions.

Robin sighed resignedly. He knew he couldn't use logic to argue his way out of this, so ruled out his next best option: he put on his best pout. His cerulean blue eyes grew larger and quivered as he turned up the intensity of the beam focused on the eyes of his mentor. They stood absolutely still, both engaged in each other's eyes. He felt Batman's gaze soften a little, and thought, "_Ok, almost got him! Just a little more!" _Suddenly, Batman snapped out of Robin's little trance. The Dark Knight mock-glared at Robin and ruffled his hair, saying, "Didn't I tell you to get in the plane?"

"Dang it!" Robin groaned. He put his mask back on and trudged across the cave to the sleek Batwing. As soon as his adoptive father turned his back, Robin stuck out his tongue. It wasn't fair. He sighed. Batman did have a point… but he wasn't going to admit it! Hmph!


	2. Chapter 2

**Note: From here on out, the story is written from the first person. **

My seat vibrated as the elegant custom jet cut through the air at heart-racing speeds. Adrenaline pulsed through my body as Batman brought the Batwing into a steep climb, my stomach pressed into the back of the chair. But, you know, in a good way. The scream of the engines was muted in the cockpit, but still audible over everything else.

I looked over at Batman in his snazzy pilot's chair with his little bat insignia on his custom fancy seat-belt…. I had to smile. After the Batmobile, the Batwing was his pride and joy. He can tell me what he wants, but I know that he's secretly nostalgic about flying his special little plane. You can just tell by the way he handles the controls and by the way he sits a little taller when he gets ready to take off.

Not that I'm much different. I _love_ flying! There's just something about it that, I don't know, makes you feel like you're free, like nothing on this world can hold you down. The surrounding forests zoomed past under me, and as we gained altitude, the trees became little dots. The window felt cold against my face, as I tried to catch the last glimpse of Wayne Manor before it slipped behind the horizon. The mansion always looked much bigger from the air, and it was looking especially regal, with the rooftops covered in a white dusting of…. wait….it can't be….. is that…. IS THAT SNOW?

I opened my eyes wide in wonder as I looked out the front windshield, and sure enough, there were little white bits of magical fluff swirling around the Batwing. "It's SNOWING!" I squealed, expressing a little more excitement than I usually allow myself, _especially _in front of Batman. I clapped my hands over my mouth, and timidly glanced over to the pilot's seat. Even though the only sources of light in the cockpit were the dashboard dials and switches, I could tell he was smirking.

In a failed attempt of recovering my macho factor, I crossed my arms and put on my manliest face. I cleared my throat and said in a deep voice, "Ahem. It appears to be…. snowing."

"What a brilliant meteorological observation, Robin."

Ladies and gents, the Batman: The World's Greatest Detective, Gotham's Dark Knight, the Caped Crusader, and master of dry humor. Not that it's surprising; he did learn from the best.

I sighed and hung my head. There was no way I was going to fool him; Batman knows how much I love snow. Just the way it decorated everything, the delightfully cool touch, and the fact that when it fell, it didn't just plummet, it floated gracefully. It was fascinating to watch; mesmerizing, like every snowflake had a story of it's own. It brought back memories of the circus. Memories of playing with Zitka in the snow and having massive snowball fights with the whole troupe. Let me tell you, if you ever have to pick anyone to be on your team during a snowball fight, pick the jugglers and the acrobats. Oh, and elephants. Elephants throw some mean snowballs. One time, Zitka-

"ETA Star City, 27 minutes."

Batman's voice snapped me out of my little daydream. I had completely forgotten; during long car or plane trips, Batman wanted me to review all of the facts of cases that we were working on, just to keep my brain active. Or maybe there was some other reason he just wasn't telling me. It wouldn't be the first time he'd kept something from me… I shivered, trying to keep the past in the past. Turning on my wrist computer, pulled up the evidence and summarized the past couple of nights.

"November 26th, someone broke into Bruce Wayne's office building, overturning every piece of furniture, but after closely examining the room, nothing appeared to be stolen. However, a bat symbol was spray painted on the wall. The next night, someone, apparently the same person, entered Lucius Fox's apartment, again, trashing the place, and left a bat symbol.

"November 28th, tonight. Same pattern, except at Commissioner Gordon's house. This time, we caught the vandal in the act. However, he had some kind of self-destruct method, so to speak. A time-controlled tablet planted behind his teeth realised some kind of poison, knocking him unconscious before we could interrogate him. Too bad too. This guy sure had one heck of an interrogation coming from me!"

Batman gave me one of his famous scowls, except there was something behind this one. Was it… pride? Anyways, I shook it off by returning the smirk he gave me earlier, and continued.

"Soooo, after running that one facial recognition scan, we figured out that this guy was actually a security guard, belonging to a squad in Star City. Usually one of those that serve as bodyguards or higher rank officers for more "important" affaires. Reserved for guarding valuables, significant locations, or significant people."

I glanced over at Batman. He had that hard-set jaw that he got whenever people treaded on touchy waters. He knew all too well the type of people I was talking about; he had to deal with them _much_ too often for his liking, being one of the most famous people in the country. Not that I blame him. When Bruce first took me in, I was awestruck by the fact that I got to be protected by bodyguards, like I was super important. But now, when I hear the word 'bodyguard', I grimace. They are ridiculously overprotective, annoying, and they invade your privacy, which in my case, is extremely dangerous.

"Anyways..." I continued, just to break the ice. Get it? Cause there was ice… on the windshield…. ok. People must think I'm insane when they see me smiling to myself and cracking myself up with my stupid jokes. Lately, it's gotten to the point where they're not even jokes anymore. They're just stupid. Hey, at least I don't tell my pathetic puns out loud anymore… as much. "We're headed to Star City to see what else we can find out on this guy. The computerized criminal record was spotty, and it had been altered a day before we could have actually read it. We're hoping that maybe there's going to be some more evidence on paper. At the police station, I presume?"

Batman gave a curt nod. "Yes," he summarized. It was usually like this; I would give a long analysis or would talk for a while, and then he would respond with one word. I sighed, somehow laughing at the same time. Batman looked over at me inquisitively. "What?" he asked, genuinely perplexed.

I returned the expression for a second. Does he not notice that he does this to everyone? Maybe it started off on purpose, but I'm pretty sure it had just evolved into a bad habit by now. At least he doesn't cut me off or leave while I'm talking. I thought of the stunts I'd seen him pull on Justice League members and the Commissioner, and I couldn't help myself. I covered my mouth with both hands to attempt to silence the giggles that were making me double over in my seat. Finally catching on that I was laughing at _him_, he squinted at me from behind his cowl. After a moment of consideration, a smile crept onto his face. Oh no. It was _that _smile. The one that let you know you were done for. Immediately, I stopped laughing.

Without warning, Batman jerked to controls to the right, sending the Batwing into a corkscrew, spiralling through the air at Mach 3. Eventually, the world became right-side up again, but it still felt like everything was spinning.

I was pretty sure I was going cross-eyed behind my mask. I just sat there motionless, back straight and eyes as wide open as they would go. My vision was partially obscured due to the hair sprawled all over my face, and I could feel the blood draining out of my face, the color of my skin almost matching the snow. Batman had that annoying look of victory, the _that should teach you _look. I wanted to punch it right off of his smug face, but it felt like if I moved, the world would start spinning again.

After a few minutes of nothing but the screech of jet engines and the humming of the dials, a cool, digital voice carefully enunciated, "Arrived at Destination: Star City."

**Hope you enjoyed it! I wrote this a while ago, and I'm reading through it again and groaning! I feel like my writing has evolved a lot past this point, and I'm writing several chapters ahead, so I hope you will see improvement in the writing as the story progresses!**

**Thank you so much for your excitement, and I encourage you to check out the other half of this story!**


End file.
